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Access anywhere, anytime: Nuclear power, Ice Camp, and Rickover’s enduring standard of excellence
Admiral William Houston
As U.S. Navy submarines surface through Arctic ice during Ice Camp 2026, they demonstrate more than operational proficiency in one of the harshest environments on Earth. They reaffirm a technological truth first proven in August 1958, when the USS Nautilus completed its submerged transit of the North Pole: nuclear power enables access anywhere, anytime.
The Arctic is unforgiving, with vast distances, extreme cold, shifting ice, and no logistical infrastructure. Conventional propulsion is constrained by fuel, air, and endurance. Nuclear propulsion removes those constraints. Only a nuclear-powered submarine can operate anywhere in the world’s oceans, including under the polar ice, undetected and at maximum capability for extended periods. Nuclear power provides sustained high speed and the endurance to reposition across the globe without refueling.
Pran K. Paul, Michael V. Gregory, Tunc Aldemir
Nuclear Technology | Volume 137 | Number 2 | February 2002 | Pages 147-162
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3264
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A dynamic optimization scheme has been developed to generate high-level-waste (HLW) blending sequences that optimize waste-processing parameters such as raw waste volume processed in a batch, waste-processing time, or waste-processing cost. The optimization algorithm takes advantage of the linear algebraic equation formulation and the continuous-discrete event mapping algorithms used in the Production Planning Model (ProdMod) simulator development. The FORTRAN-based optimizer is interfaced with the SPEEDUP-based dynamic process simulator ProdMod. The optimization scheme has been successfully implemented to maximize the amount of raw waste volume processed in a batch for one of the salt-processing options at the Savannah River Site HLW complex. Parametric studies demonstrate that this optimization scheme provides a realistic approach for guiding the operation of HLW complexes. The optimization scheme is applicable to other sites in the nuclear waste complex (e.g., Hanford) and also for process industries where the dynamics are simulated using Aspen Technology's SPEEDUP software development package.